Kranji
War Cemetery and Singapore Memorial

Entrance
to the Kranji War Cemetery

The
Singapore Memorial in Kranji Cemetery

The
Kranji War Cemetery

Dedication
in front of Memorial

Looking
down to the cemetery entrance

Kranji
War Cemetery is 22 kilometres north of the city of Singapore, on
the north side of Singapore Island overlooking the Straits of Johore.
It is just off the Singapore-Johore road (Woodlands Road) at the
milestone 13½, and there is a short approach road from the
main road. The Cemetery is known locally as Kranji Memorial and
one must be sure of the address before boarding a taxi as most taxi
drivers do not know the Cemetery. There are also bus stops on the
main road facing the Cemetery. An MRT terminal will be found a short
distance from the Cemetery known as 'Kranji' but the site is also
acessible from 'Woodlands' termina (a slightly longer walk). The
Memorial stands in Kranji War Cemetery.

Before
1939 the Kranji area was a military camp and at the time of the
Japanese invasion of Malaya, it was the site of a large ammunition
magazine. On 8 February 1942, the Japanese crossed the Johore Straits
in strength, landing at the mouth of the Kranji River within two
miles of the place where the war cemetery now stands. On the evening
of 9 February, they launched an attack between the river and the
causeway. During the next few days fierce fighting ensued, in many
cases hand to hand, until their greatly superior numbers and air
strength necessitated a withdrawal. After the fall of the island,
the Japanese established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and eventually
a hospital was organised nearby at Woodlands. After the reoccupation
of Singapore, the small cemetery started by the prisoners at Kranji
was developed into a permanent war cemetery by the Army Graves Service
when it became evident that a larger cemetery at Changi could not
remain undisturbed. Changi had been the site of the main prisoner
of war camp in Singapore and a large hospital had been set up there
by the Australian Infantry Force. In 1946, the graves were moved
from Changi to Kranji, as were those from the Buona Vista prisoner
of war camp. Many other graves from all parts of the island were
transferred to Kranji together with all Second World War graves
from Saigon Military Cemetery in French Indo-China (now Vietnam),
another site where permanent maintenance could not be assured. The
Commission later brought in graves of both World Wars from Bidadari
Christian Cemetery, Singapore, where again permanent maintenance
was not possible. There are now 4,458 Commonwealth casualties of
the Second World War buried or commemorated at Kranji War Cemetery.
More than 850 of the burials are unidentified. The Chinese Memorial
in Plot 44 marks a collective grave for 69 Chinese servicemen, all
members of the Commonwealth forces, who were killed by the Japanese
during the occupation in February 1942. First World War burials
and commemorations number 64, including special memorials to three
casualties known to have been buried in civil cemeteries in Saigon
and Singapore, but whose graves could not be located. Within Kranji
War Cemetery stands the Singapore Memorial, bearing the names of
over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces who
have no known grave. The land forces commemorated by the memorial
died during the campaigns in Malaya and Indonesia or in subsequent
captivity, many of them during the construction of the Burma-Thailand
railway, or at sea while being transported into imprisonment elsewhere.
The memorial also commemorates airmen who died during operations
over the whole of southern and eastern Asia and the surrounding
seas and oceans. The Singapore (Unmaintainable Graves) Memorial,
which stands at the western end of the Singapore Memorial, commemorates
more than 250 casualties who died in campaigns in Singapore and
Malaya, whose known graves in civil cemeteries could not be assured
maintenance and on religious grounds could not be moved to a war
cemetery. The Singapore Cremation Memorial, which stands immediately
behind the Singapore Memorial, commemorates almost 800 casualties,
mostly of the Indian forces, whose remains were cremated in accordance
with their religious beliefs. The Singapore Civil Hospital Grave
Memorial stands at the eastern end of the Singapore Memorial. During
the last hours of the Battle of Singapore, wounded civilians and
servicemen taken prisoner by the Japanese were brought to the hospital
in their hundreds. The number of fatalities was such that burial
in the normal manner was impossible. Before the war, an emergency
water tank had been dug in the grounds of the hospital and this
was used as a grave for more than 400 civilians and Commonwealth
servicemen. After the war, it was decided that as individual identification
of the dead would be impossible, the grave should be left undisturbed.
The grave was suitably enclosed, consecrated by the Bishop of Singapore,
and a cross in memory of all of those buried there was erected over
it by the military authorities. The 107 Commonwealth casualties
buried in the grave are commemorated on the Singapore Civil Hospital
Grave Memorial. Kranji War Cemetery and the Singapore Memorial were
designed by Colin St Clair Oakes. Adjoining Kranji War Cemetery
is Kranji Military Cemetery, a substantial non-world war site of
1,378 burials, created in 1975 when it was found necessary to remove
the graves of servicemen and their families from Pasir Panjang and
Ulu Pandan cemeteries.